Biological Evaluation

• One strength of the biological approach is that it is very scientific. This means that biological explanations have clear variables that can be measured and examined. For example, drug therapy has investigated links between psychoactive drugs and the production of certain neurotransmitters e.g (SSRIs and serotonin). Since its research is scientific it can be used to support biological explanations.
• Another strength is that it is deterministic. Biological psychologists are able to treat people with abnormal behaviour due to the fact our behaviour is 'predetermined'. For example, psychologists seek to understand the functioning of neurotransmitters so they can predict the effect of them on behaviour. Therefore a drug can be developed to treat certain behaviours e,g those with schizophrenia can be treated with various antipsychotics.
• One weakness of the biological approach is that it can be reductionist. The approach reduces complex behaviours to being fixable by drugs. The approach addresses the symptoms of disorders rather than the underlying cause e.g reducing stress to the action of adrenaline. This may prevent us from reaching a true understanding of the target behaviour.
• Another weakness of this approach is that it focuses on nature rather than nurture. Mental illness has multiple causes yet the approach purely focuses on biology (nature) and ignores life experiences and the way people think and feel. For example the biological approach to explaining schizophrenia is concerned with abnormal levels of neurotransmitters rather than how patients feel about their illness.